Kalain Ho­sein

Me­te­o­rol­o­gist/Re­porter

kalain.ho­sein@cnc3.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains un­der an or­ange-lev­el High Wind Alert on Thurs­day, as the T&T Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) fore­casts strong wind gusts ac­com­pa­ny­ing show­ers and thun­der­storms.

On Wednes­day, the TTMS up­grad­ed the alert to an or­ange lev­el ap­prox­i­mate­ly an hour af­ter the strongest winds be­gan to sweep across the is­land.

In their up­dat­ed alert, which re­mains in ef­fect un­til 2 pm om Fri­day, the TTMS said, "Gusts in ex­cess of 60 KM/H are ob­served, es­pe­cial­ly in the vicin­i­ty of show­ers. In heavy down­pours and thun­der­storms, down­drafts may ex­ceed 75 KM/H. These strong winds may be brief but can dis­place un­se­cured roofs, loose out­door ob­jects, top­pling trees, and weak struc­tures. Ma­rine craft can be ad­verse­ly im­pact­ed by these strong winds, and vis­i­bil­i­ty may be ex­treme­ly low dur­ing dusk and dawn. Wind waves oc­ca­sion­al­ly near 2.5 me­tres are al­so ex­pect­ed with ag­i­tat­ed seas."

Based on the lat­est sit­u­a­tion re­port from the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) on Wednes­day evening, most in­ci­dents oc­curred across north­ern ar­eas of Trinidad. The ODPM con­firmed six fall­en trees, three blown-off roofs and one land­slide in Trinidad, with one fall­en tree in To­ba­go. At Pi­ar­co, peak gusts of 46 KM/H were record­ed, while at Crown Point, To­ba­go, gusts of 50 KM/H oc­curred.

With­in the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, fall­en trees were re­port­ed at Aranguez at John­ny King Road be­tween Ali's Dri­ve and Tu­lah Ali Dri­ve, Mt Hope along the Uri­ah But­ler High­way south­bound lane on­to a ve­hi­cle, in­jur­ing three, and at Laven­tille at Men­tor Al­ley, where a tree fell on­to a house.

Mean­while, with­in the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, there were fall­en trees at Ch­aguara­mas at Tuck­er Val­ley Road, par­tial­ly block­ing the road­way; Pe­tit Val­ley at Morne Co­co Road, where the tree al­so par­tial­ly blocked the road and in Co­corite at Co­corite Ter­race, where the downed tree blocked ac­cess in and out of a house. One roof was blown off at Fac­to­ry Road, Hillview and a land­slide brought down a bam­boo stool at Pi­o­neer Dri­ve, Pe­tit Val­ley, dam­ag­ing wa­ter tanks.

A roof was al­so blown off at Ve­ga de Oropouche, San­gre Grande and Wa­ter­loo, Brick­field.

In To­ba­go, a fall­en tree al­so tem­porar­i­ly blocked Union Trace be­tween Or­ange Hill and Union.

This or­ange-lev­el alert calls for se­vere im­pacts, ac­cord­ing to the TTMS.

With more gusty winds fore­cast Thurs­day through Fri­day, the Met Of­fice ad­vis­es the pub­lic to se­cure loose out­door ob­jects and live­stock, avoid un­nec­es­sary out­door ac­tiv­i­ty where pos­si­ble, and says that ma­rine in­ter­ests should al­so ex­er­cise ex­treme cau­tion dur­ing this pe­ri­od. The pub­lic with ma­rine in­ter­ests should al­so mon­i­tor sea con­di­tions and fol­low life­guards' in­struc­tions.